First fin whales landed
Whaling boats moored at Reykjavik harbour. The first two fin whales have been caught. Photo: Brynjar Gauti
The whaling boats of Hvalur hf. have landed two fin whales which they will bring to Hvalfjörður to be cut up into meat according to sources of mbl.is. These are the first whales to be landed this season.
The vessels, Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9, belong to Icelandic whaling company Hvalur and have a licence to hunt 150 finback whales this year. Their quota last year was 154, but poor weather conditions meant that just 137 finback whales were caught. The 2013 quote was 134.
Earlier this month, 23 animal rights associations sent a joint letter to US President Barack Obama urging him to impose sanctions on Iceland for its whaling activities.
The Marine Research institute explains that Red Lists of animals in danger of extinction such as The IUCN list of threatened species look at the fin whale as one population of whales on a global scale. "Their list is governed by the situation of the fin whale population in the southern hemisphere which is in very bad shape. It was a very big population before the time of whaling. However, the population of fin whale in the central North Atlantic is around 20,000 which is the same number as before whaling started."
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